Guardian analysis of data show police seizures of the drug increased by 30% last year

The Guardian (UK)Monday, February 4, 2019

Public Health England has expressed concern that increasing numbers of young people are using ketamine as a Guardian analysis of government data shows the number of police seizures of the drug increased by 30% last year. Robert Ralphs, a senior lecturer in criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University, said ketamine had become firmly established as the third most popular drug among students after ecstasy and cocaine, partly because it is cheaper – a gram of ketamine costs about £30. Martin Raithelhuber, an expert on illicit synthetic drug at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said most ketamine for recreational use was being produced in clandestine labs in Asian countries, particularly China.

In all the talk, some myths keep being trotted out. Here’s the facts

Australia's Science Channel (Australia)Monday, February 4, 2019

From politicians to the public, the same myths keep being rolled out about pill testing. They’ve been testing pills in 20 other countries for at least two decades and there is considerable evidence that it helps reduce harm. There’s only been one sanctioned trial in Australia – at last year’s Groovin The Moo festival in Canberra – but there were positive signs. Only 20 people sought assistance from ACT Ambulance (most for intoxication linked to alcohol and/or MDMA) compared with 30 the previous year. Two people were taken to hospital for intoxication, but neither had attended the testing facility. A UK study showed that where when pill testing was in operation, hospital attendances dropped in nearby areas by as much as 95%.

A nascent industry needs protection, but so do certain neighborhoods

Cannabis Wire (US)Monday, February 4, 2019

In October 2018, the California Department of Consumer Affairs’ newly-established Cannabis Enforcement Unit teamed up with the Los Angeles Police Department to carry out a raid on an unlicensed shop in Sylmar, a predominantly Latino and working-class neighborhood. The seizure took place ten months after the state had begun allowing the sale and taxation of cannabis for adult use. The end of prohibition has hardly ended illicit cannabis sales. A nascent industry—not to mention local governments eager for tax revenue—is pushing for rigorous enforcement. But who gets hurt? Calibrating a crackdown that does not hurt the same people and neighborhoods that suffered in the War on Drugs is not so easy.

"It's a way to say we had an injustice, now let's give the very people who were the victims, the economic benefit"

Civilized (US)Sunday, February 3, 2019

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio supports Governor Andrew Cuomo's pledge to legalize recreational marijuana, but he doesn't want the the market to be overrun by big corporations when cannabis prohibition is repealed. "We have an industry that is just licking its chops, waiting to come in and corporatize marijuana—to do exactly what the tobacco industry did with cigarettes, to do exactly what the pharmaceutical industry did with things like oxycontin. What we need [to do] is legalize marijuana without corporatized marijuana," Mayor De Blasio told Bill Maher. To prevent that from happening, the mayor wants to hand the market over to former victims of cannabis prohibition—people who were arrested and imprisoned for marijuana-related offsenses.

Federally licensed production is increasing at a breakneck pace and that adequate legal supplies should be available countrywide by early next year

The Toronto Star (Canada)Friday, February 1, 2019

Despite the persistent media buzz, there are no cannabis supply shortages in Canada, pot industry expert Michael Armstrong explains. “There’s all kinds of cannabis in Canada,” says Armstrong, “It’s the legal cannabis that we’re short of.” And to successfully compete with a stocked and still-thriving illegal market, the country’s licensed cannabis producers must — among a series of moves — ramp up their crop outputs exponentially, offer cheaper, more varied strains and get them into a vastly increased number of stores. “This is not a new industry, there is an existing industry,” says Armstrong, who analyzed new Health Canada data on the country’s marijuana market for a recent article. “What we have is this new legal version that has to compete with it.”

Right now though, provincial retailers are pointing towards significant shortages

Financial Post (Canada)Friday, February 1, 2019

If Canada’s licensed cannabis producers continue ramping up production at their current exponential pace, there will be more than enough pot to meet the government’s projected demand by the end of 2019, predicts one cannabis researcher who conducted an analysis of the government’s most recent data. While some have suggested shortages in the sector could last for years, Brock University professor Michael Armstrong argues that barring any unforeseen circumstances that supply concerns will be resolved much more quickly than that. Total legal production of cannabis began drastically increasing about six months before legalization, Armstrong notes, as evidenced by how quickly cannabis inventories were growing.

Tramadol is the most popular drug among users, followed by cannabis and heroin

Middle East Monitor (UK)Thursday, January 31, 2019

Egypt’s cabinet has approved a draft law that would see drug dealers sentenced to death. The law was part of a broader bill to combat the spread of narcotics in the country and drugs trafficking. The draft amendment states that anyone who “brought or exported synthetic substances with an anaesthetic effect, or harmful to mind, body, or psychological and neurological condition shall be punished by death”, adding that those who possessed drugs for the purpose of trafficking could face life imprisonment and a maximum fine of $28,000. According to Amnesty, Egyptian civil and military courts issued more than 1,400 death sentences, mostly related to incidents of political violence, following grossly unfair trials, with testimonies often obtained through torture.

The war on drugs has hurt patients who need painkillers

The Economist (UK)Thursday, January 31, 2019

Providing palliative care without morphine is like “driving a car without fuel”, says Emmanuel Luyirika, of the Kampala-based African Palliative Care Association in Uganda. It is also unnecessary, because opioids are cheap. Providing pain relief for their populations can cost governments as little as $2-16 per person each year, according to a study commissioned by the Lancet. The morphine shortage stems from bad policies. In the 1980s and 1990s, as part of its “war on drugs”, America cut aid and imposed sanctions on countries that were not tough enough on trafficking. It listed Nigeria as unco-operative from 1994 to 1998 (during a criminal dictatorship), suspended military aid and blocked loans.

This website

UN Drug Control

In 2011 the 1961 UN Single Convention on drugs will be in place for 50 years. In 2012 the international drug control system will exist 100 years since the International Opium Convention was signed in 1912 in The Hague. Does it still serve its purpose or is a reform of the UN Drug Conventions needed? This site provides critical background.